Esso 'Cambria'

In 1969 with a length of 348 metres and a beam of 51 metres Esso 'Cambria' was the biggest ship ever built in Holland. Closing down the Suez Canal in 1956 and again in 1967 due to conflicts in the Middle East opened a market for supertankers like this. The limited depth of the Suez Canal was no longer a restriction to the size of tanker ships and because of the fact that they now had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope - a significantly longer route - it was much more economic to transport as much oil as possible in one time. The ship was built by the highly succesfull Verolme werf in the Dutch town of Rozenburg. Together with the Amsterdam based NDSM (Nederlandse Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij) Verolme built a total of 33 supertankers. The last supertanker built in Holland was the 'Schelderix' - launched by the NDSM in 1978. Dutch shipyards by that time could no longer compete with the big yards in the far east where labour was much cheaper. Under influence and with financial support of the Dutch government the last big yards in Holland united in the RSV (Rijn Schelde Verolme) concern, but it was too late and hopeless. Despite of around 1,5 billion euros of government support the RSV concern went bankrupt in 1983. It marks the end of an era of ship building in Holland. Measures of the model (lxwxh) are 348 x 52 x 65 cm.